Families “enduring everlasting grief” after losing babies due to NHS failings are being sidelined by a rapid review into maternity services, a campaign group has claimed.
One woman, whose daughter died in 2022, described how victims are forced to “compress” their experiences into eight minutes, with some re-traumatised by having to choose the most important reasons for their babies’ deaths.
The Maternity Safety Alliance has renewed its call for a statutory inquiry into NHS maternity services, urging the Government to “abandon this performative approach”.
However, a spokesperson for the National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation (NMNI) argued that its rapid review would allow improvements to be made faster than would be possible with a statutory inquiry.
The NMNI was commissioned by Health Secretary Wes Streeting in June last year.
The probe is being led by Baroness Valerie Amos and will examine 12 NHS trusts, with a report due in the spring.
The Maternity Safety Alliance has published fresh criticism of the process, claiming the timescale is “compressed” and the involvement of families is “limited to sharing their experiences rather than participating in the decision-making processes”.
According to the group, the panels arranged to hear from bereaved and harmed families allocate eight minutes per person to share their experiences.
Emily Barley, whose daughter Beatrice died because of failings at Barnsley Hospital in 2022, co-founded the Maternity Safety Alliance.
The 37-year-old, who now lives in Cornwall, told the Press Association she thinks the review “lacks the depth and the robustness that I think we really need from any investigation into maternity”.
Investigators are spending two days on site at each trust involved in the review, which Miss Barley said is “not enough time to understand what’s going on”.
“When they’re meeting with family panels, they’re meeting first of all with a select few, so there’s not many people who get to even speak directly to the review,” she added.
“And then they’re being given an eight-minute time limit, which is not enough time to get into the real detail of what happened and who did what.
“It’s also not just about what happened at the time of your baby’s death or their injury, or your own injury. It’s about what happened after and the attitudes of staff, and what happened in investigations, because all of this is part of why babies continue to die.”
Last month, Baroness Amos launched a call for evidence for the NMNI which will be open until March 17.
Two surveys are available: one for women who have experienced pregnancy and used maternity services, and another for people who have supported someone through pregnancy.
Miss Barley described this element of the probe as an “insult”.
“It’s an insult to people whose babies have died,” she said.
“People are being expected to compress their experiences of what happened into a 500-word limit.
“We’re talking about, for many families, events that unfolded over days or even weeks, with multiple members of staff involved. It’s impossible to do that.
“People have been put in the really re-traumatising position and being told ‘this is your chance to be heard, have your say’, and then having to decide what the most important parts are to include, what the most important reasons that your baby died. It’s just no good.”
Miss Barley told PA she was “shoved in a side room and ignored” after going into labour with Beatrice.
Monitoring showed her baby’s heart rate had slowed but she was transferred to a ward instead of having an emergency Caesarean.
“Then they spent close to an hour doing what I can really only describe as faffing around,” Miss Barley said.
Staff eventually brought in a portable ultrasound machine and discovered that Beatrice had died.
In December, Baroness Amos published her initial thoughts from the first three months of the probe and said nothing had prepared her for the “scale of unacceptable care that women and families have received, and continue to receive”.
The report showed the NHS had recorded 748 recommendations relating to maternity and neonatal care in the past decade, and also detailed discrimination against women of colour, working-class women, younger parents and women with mental health problems.
However, Miss Barley branded the document a “waste of time”.
“It just repeated everything we’ve heard before, which I think actually is probably what the whole review will do,” she added.
In January, Mr Streeting said he was “keeping open the option of a public inquiry” but highlighted that the process can take years.
A statement from the Maternity Safety Alliance said it has been left “deeply concerned” by the rapid review, adding it lacks the power to “deliver justice for bereaved and harmed families or implement meaningful improvements”.
“Many families have been enduring everlasting grief for years with no accountability,” it added.
“This is not something that should be rushed or rapid.
“The children and mothers who have died or been harmed deserve this to be done properly, however long that takes, not ‘rapidly’ to fit a political agenda.
“We are asking the Government to abandon this performative approach and establish a truly independent, transparent and robust statutory inquiry that can hold institutions to account and ensure safe maternity care for all.”
A spokesperson for the NMNI said its aim “is to develop and publish one set of national recommendations to drive the improvements needed to ensure high quality and safe maternity and neonatal care across England”.
“This is a rapid review so improvements can be made more quickly than would be possible with a statutory public inquiry,” they added.
“A national maternity and neonatal taskforce, chaired by the Secretary of State, is being set up. The taskforce will use the recommendations made by Baroness Amos’ investigation to develop a new national action plan to drive improvements across maternity and neonatal care.”